Opponents of Le Petit Theatre sale stage rally at hotel

Several dozen theater lovers opposed to plans to sell part of Le Petit Theatre’s French Quarter building for use as a restaurant held a rally Tuesday night at the Columns Hotel, cheering speakers who criticized the proposed sale and said they think it can be stopped.

At the request of the Le Petit Theatre Guild, an autonomous booster organization, Civil District Judge Kern Reese last week ordered the theater’s board not to proceed with plans to sell 60 percent of the building to the Dickie Brennan Restaurant Group until at least this Friday.

Board leaders have said the sale is the best way to solve financial problems that have threatened the theater’s future. The board would retain ownership of the 365-seat main theater.

The board canceled the remainder of Le Petit’s 2010-11 season in December.

Reese will hold a hearing Friday on whether to extend his order, which appeared to have energized those attending Tuesday’s rally.

Leaders of the guild organized the rally, which attracted prominent local actors such as Becky Allen and Oliver Thomas, a former City Council member. Current Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer also was on hand, though she said she was there mainly to listen.

Gary Solomon Jr., a guild member and entertainment producer who in 2009, at age 22, took over management of the theater for 19 months, spelled out details of an offer he said his family and a group of other “angel investors” have made to the Le Petit board.

Gary Solomon Jr. makes an offer to bail out Le Petit TheatreThe board of governors of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre seemed set to sell half of the theater's French Quarter building to the Dickie Brennan Restaurant Group, to insure the survival of the cash-strapped playhouse that canceled its season in December. But last week, Civil District Judge Kern Reese brought the deal to a halt - at least temporarily - at the request of the Le Petit Theatre Guild, an autonomous booster organization that opposes the sale. At a June 21, 2011 Guild rally, member Gary Solomon Jr., who managed Le Petit for 19 months beginning in 2009, offered details of an alternative plan to bail out the New Orleans institution.

He said their goal is to let Le Petit retain control of the entire building. To do that, he said, the group has offered to take over a $700,000 mortgage on the building and “put it in our back pocket,” seeking no payments on it from the theater for at least five years. At the end of that period, he said, the group might agree to forgive payments for a further five years.

In addition, Solomon said, the group has offered to provide $1.25 million in operating support during the next five years, or $250,000 a year. He said that is more than the greatest deficit Le Petit has run up during any single year except for immediately after Hurricane Katrina, when he said the annual deficit reached $280,000.

Solomon said the group of investors would be interested in making a further offer to cover Le Petit’s vendor debt and pay for needed repairs, but it does not know enough about the specifics of the theater’s needs to make a firm offer to cover those categories.

He said his group made its offer in writing to the theater’s board but it was rejected three times.

Le Petit Chairwoman Cassie Steck Worley said two weeks ago that the board had to take immediate action because Capital One bank, which holds the $700,000 mortgage on the building, had “indicated that there’s no time left.” The guild disputes that. Worley said the building also needs $1 million in roof and termite damage repairs.

The board said that other offers it had received, unlike the Brennan proposal, did not guarantee the board would be able to continue to own and run the theater. It said the Brennan offer would let it pay off the mortgage and other debts, make the needed repairs and create a sizable endowment fund.

Solomon said his offer would let the board retain ownership of the entire building. His group does not want a management role or even a seat on the board, he said.

David Halpern, a lawyer attending the rally, said he thinks the board’s plan to sell most of the building, including Le Petit’s smaller performing area, can be stopped.

Jim Walpole, president of the guild, said it has 1,650 signatures on a petition opposed to the sale.